Mundie Moms

Friday, August 17, 2012

Easy by Tammara Webber

Publisher: Tammara Webber
Release Date: May 24, 2012
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 stars -- I loved it!

Synopsis: A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

I'm sure you guys are familiar with this scenario. One minute you're happily attacking your TBR pile and you're feeling mildly successful and the next minute you're getting a text, seeing someone else's review and a tweet or two about this Drop Everything, Must Read Book. If you're like me, you ignore those. But something kept drawing me into Easy's synopsis.

Okay so here's the deal, I loved college. I loved the struggle of finding my adult self while trying to negotiate the hell hallowed halls of Academia Land. Tammara brings this struggle to life while tackling a tough subject -- date rape. And that is a subject I normally stay away from reading because it simply hurts my heart. However, it's an important subject and one that has staggering statistics attached to it. According to crisisconnection.com, there is a rape on an American college campus every 21 hours.

You should all know me by now, there has to be character growth in order for me to lovelovelove a story. Jacqueline is such a wonderful character -- to go through her pain, her acceptance of what happened to her and keep her determination to right a terrible wrong -- made me want to jump up and hug her. Yes, I know she's fictional and yet, that's exactly what I wanted to do.

Tammara also gives Jacqueline a great supporting cast of secondary characters. I won't go on about them (because of spoilers), but their growth provided Jacqueline (and yes, me) with a comfort level that things will change but perhaps they change for the better.

And oh yeah, you're waiting for it...so umm, Lucas. He zoomed onto my Favorite Fictional Boys List with that motorcycle and tattoos of his. What did I like about him? Can't tell you. Spoilers. I'll add that he's very complex. ComplexBadBoys? They should stand on the shelf next to my HotBoyswithSwords.

This is labeled on goodreads as a "Mature Young Adult/New Adult" book. The story is realistic, hopeful and yes, sensual/romantic (which sounds wrong given the subject matter, but please read the book to see why I labeled it just that). I give Tammara and "A+" for making my summer doldrums go away.

14 comments:

  1. Cecilia - I am so glad that you loved it, too! Everyone seems to be liking it and with good reason, too.

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  2. Complex Bad Boys definitely have a shelf all their own. This sounds like one I HAVE to read.

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    1. Heather - I looooved it. Chrck out the links, the ebook is very reasonably priced. Hope you enjoy it, too.

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  3. I loooooved this book! and yes Lucas totally made it on my list too! I loved how deep he was and yes, complex fits him perfectly!

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    1. Danny - I just love when new characters are added to that list! ;) All kidding aside, both he and Jacqueline were so well written.

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  4. I've seen this book around the blogosphere, and every review is making me crazy wanting to read this book. I'm delighted to hear that you loved this book. I will be sure to pick it up when I find the time!

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    1. Kris - See?? I was driven crazy by all the buzz about it, too. And it does live up to the praise.

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  5. So glad you loved it! Easy earns all the praise!

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    1. RuthieLynn - It does! And the ebook is so reasonably priced, I hope more people pick it up.

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  6. So I read the first couple of chapters (Sampler to be exact) and I have to say that I already found about five things that bugged me. I just wasn't sold on how she refused to call the police. :-( That sort of turned me off. However, I love your review and I think I might try and finish it and look past that.

    <3

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    1. Dee - I would tell you to give it another chance. In reviewing stats on date rapes on campus for this review, I can say that a shocking number go unreported. The most common reason is that the victims feel that no one will believe them and they want desperately to move on and not face the questions/exams/court appearances required by the process of the law. So I felt that the moment was accurate. Also, hey, you have to find out more about Lucas. Trust me on this. ;)

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